Victorian Forts Portsmouth 19a
Stokes Bay Lines Battery No.1
Commenced 1857 Armament
Completed 1861
Cost £ 75,120 for the Lines 1872 9 x 8-inch S.B.
1890 2 x 7-inch R.B.L.
Map Reference SZ 58764 98986 1901 2 x Maxim Machine Guns
Position Gosport Stokes Bay 1904 Disarmed
Type Coast Defence Flanking Battery
Ditch wet
Guns 9
Barrack Accom. None
Present use Caravan/chalet park
Caponiers None
History Coast Defence
Counterscarp None
Disposal Half demolished Post 1950
Condition Some concrete revetments remain galleries
Access None. Private property.
Haxo casemates None
Sources Stokes Bay Defences - D.Moore
Moncrieff Pits None
History and Description
No.1 Battery was first armed with eight 8-inch Smooth Bore guns firing through embrasures. In 1886
it was proposed to replace these with two 7-inch 82cwt R.B.L. guns on Dwarf Traversing Platforms
mounted on A pivot racers. These were in place by 1891. Ammunition was provided by two expense
magazines, one a shell store for 153 rounds and the other a cartridge store holding 47 barrels. In 1891
the cartridge store held 288 cartridges and the shell store 170 shells. A short tunnel and covered way
connected No.1 Battery to the parade of No.2 Battery via a bridge across the moat.
The battery was mostly demolished when the Browndown Road and a roundabout was constructed.
A portion of the concrete revetment and rampart is still extant inside the chalet park as is the tunnel
to No.2 Battery. All of the gun positions and magazines have been removed. In 2010 a set of granite
blocks that held the gun racers for pone of the gun emplacements were uncovered and were re-sited
within the park. In 2012 the battery was listed.
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